


Idiot

by flootzavut



Series: Lie to NCIS [27]
Category: Lie to Me (TV), NCIS
Genre: Awesome Foursome, Crossover, Friendship, Gen, GxJ, Humour, JxK, Kibbs, Lie to NCIS, Other, foursomeverse, queer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-15 21:24:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9257936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flootzavut/pseuds/flootzavut
Summary: A few days after Jealousy, Gibbs goes to see Gillian. Gibbs is worried. Gillian thinks he's an idiot...Crib notes for the fandom blind included.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Kate lives!AU. Post LTM canon, playing fast and loose with NCIS canon as it suits me, in a 'verse where Kate is still alive and working for NCIS.
> 
> NCIS folks: Gill and Cal are experts in lie detection, using facial expression (reading emotion), vocal stress analysis and other expertise. The Lightman Group helps various law enforcement agencies and other people when the truth is at stake. Emily is Cal's daughter.
> 
> LTM folks: Kate and Gibbs are federal agents who work for NCIS, investigating crimes affecting the US Navy or Marines. Kate is ex-Secret Service. Gibbs is a team leader and is reknowned for his gut instincts.

* * *

**_Idiot_ **

* * *

 

After a few days of swinging wildly between happy and terrified, Gibbs isn't very surprised to find himself visiting Gillian. Her office is an oasis of calm even when the rest of the Lightman Group is a three ring circus.

He can feel himself relax as she greets him, offers him a glass of water, sits him down on her couch and perches next to him. Something about her can put him at ease just sitting here, and the knot of tension at the base of his spine loosens a fraction as he obediently drinks his water, then leans back into the cushions and stretches his legs out.

"So what's up?"

He almost laughs. He's well aware getting straight down to business isn't particularly Gill's style, but she knows it's his, and she's endlessly adaptable. He strongly suspects it's a survival mechanism, and comes from being Cal's friend and business partner for all this time.

"Who says anythin's up?"

She smiles and cocks her head to one side, sweetly amused. "You remember what we do here, right?" Her smile widens. "It's been less than a week since you and Kate finally got together, I know how big a deal that was for you. And besides, you're fidgeting."

He glances down at his hands, caught in the act. He didn't even realise he was doing it.

"I hardly have to be a mindreader to make the connection, do I?"

He laughs. "Okay. Yeah, fair point." He should be used to it by now, should've come to terms with being called on it when he bullshits or just plain avoids, but it's taking him a long while to get used to being the one who can be read like a book instead of being the one in the know.

There's really no point pretending. "I don't really know why I'm here," he admits. "I'm kinda..." He shakes his head, takes a deep breath, and looks back at her, summoning up his meagre reserves of emotional bravery. "Gill, I think I'm just- I'm... scared."

He can see her surprise. He's a little surprised himself. Expressing an emotion, any emotion, out loud? That's his kryptonite. Admitting he's afraid is simply... not something he does. But apparently Gillian just has this effect on him.

"You're allowed to be scared, Jethro."

"Yeah?" He doesn't need special expertise or skills to hear the doubt in his own voice.

"Yes." She smiles again. "I am, too. Don't you think I'm scared about me and Cal? And I'm sure Kate's facing her own fears. It's a big change." She winks. "Long overdue, but still frightening."

He chuckles. He's pretty unsure about how it's all going to shake out, but he can also recognise it was inevitable. Ever since that evening when Ari asked after Kate, when Gibbs surprised himself with the vehemence of his anger. Realised he sounded less like a boss, more like a lover. Realised the current he'd been trying to pretend didn't exist since Air Force One had gotten out of control. He's tried to stifle it and ignore it and outright deny it, but he always knew, deep down, he couldn't squash it forever.

And Kate, well, she's as stubborn as he is. Maybe more. He hardly dared believe it, but all the same, he's neither blind nor stupid. Despite his scepticism, despite his reluctance to trust his gut instincts, discovering she felt the same way was not exactly a surprise... even though it still somehow managed to be a shock.

Gill sits and watches him, as patient as a statue, as warm as sunlight. She doesn't push, she just waits, allows the silence to work its magic.

Gibbs often thinks that, if she weren't so damn nice, Gill would be a fine LEO, and certainly a better interrogator than most. She uses silence as effectively and irresistibly as he can, which isn't something he can say about many of his fellow agents.

Even though he knows exactly what she's doing, he still can't hold out indefinitely. Eventually he sighs and shakes his head again. "Still not sure I'm doing the right thing, you know? Kate's so- God." Where can he even start? He's too old, too messed up, too set in his ways. Kate has so much going for her, so much he could spoil, ruin, and- "She deserves more."

Gill's already shaking her head, "She loves you, Jethro. She loves you."

"Suppose I hurt her?"

She gives him a little smile he recognises, though usually it's aimed at Cal. It speaks of amused tolerance, of putting up with male idiocy. "You're an idiot," she says, confirming the impression. Though Gill being Gill, she puts such affection into it, it's impossible to hear it as an insult. Not to mention Kate's already told him the same thing several times in reference to his certainty he's doing her wrong by allowing this relationship to happen. "There's no such thing as a perfect relationship-" Gill sees him take a breath and waves her hand to shush him. "I'm sure your Shannon would agree with me."

He wants to argue, but memories surface against his will.

Kelly begging him not to leave, Joanne's bitterness over his 'desertion' of her daughter - arguments with Shannon herself he tries not to remember, because apparently he is kind of an idiot after all.

He reluctantly subsides. He hates to admit it, but she does have a point. His relationship with Shannon was good, was great, but it wasn't perfect, and maybe he needs to let go of remembering it as if it was. Shannon would roll her eyes, would probably also tell him he was an idiot for canonising her.

Gill leans forward and puts her hand on his knee. "You assume you're too broken to be loved, to love, but it just isn't true, Jethro. Anyone seeing you with your team can see your capacity for love, for trust and commitment and affection." She sounds frustrated. "There are enough real difficulties in life, in love, in relationships. You don't need to go finding imaginary ones to make it more difficult, all right?"

He frowns. Even if he believes her assessment, he can see plenty of real reasons this might crash and burn.

"I'm her boss. And the age difference. And I got enough baggage to fill a damn cargo hold and then some."

"And will you really let any of that get in the way when you love each other?" Gill smiles again, even as she shakes her head at his continued stupidity. "Who cares about what the world out there expects? You need to do what's right for you. Both of you." She pauses. "For a man who'll do anything to get justice and closure for victims, you're remarkably bad at fighting for what you want, you know."

"But Kate's so... she so young, Gill, she should be with someone- I dunno, younger, better." Even to himself, he sounds bitter, but he just can't leave it alone. What he wants is one thing, but he doesn't want to drag Kate down, hurt her, just because he's too selfish to let her go when he should.

"Hey, hey." Gill pauses, waits until he's looking up at her. "She loves you. You must know that." She smiles. "Trust me on this one, if you won't trust yourself. It was obvious from the first time I met you both, and Cal noticed it, too. It was perfectly, painfully clear how you both felt. And then Kate and I - well, you know, we talked a lot, among other things." She shrugs. "You were... a regular topic of conversation."

"Yeah?"

Gill rolls her eyes at his suddenly eager tone. "Yes. And no, I'm not going to tell you exactly what we talked about." She smiles again, and he wonders if it's his imagination that it looks a little sad. "But I never had any illusions where her heart belonged. Where it's always belonged."

He can see easily how truthful she's being, how sincere, but he still needs more confirmation. "All this time?"

She throws up her hands. "Good God, Jethro, you just don't know how to take yes for an answer, do you? Yes, all this time. She's loved you since long before we met you." Her exasperation is tempered with fond kindness, and she reaches out to squeeze his shoulder reassuringly for a moment. "You really are an idiot, you do know that, right?"

He manages a rueful smile. "Yeah, I know."

She grins back, leans in to touch his cheek and kiss his forehead like an adult comforting a child. From anyone else it might seem condescending, but from Gill it feels like a blessing. He closes his eyes and accepts her affection, much as he's utterly convinced he doesn't deserve it. Like Kate, Gill is pretty much impossible to put off, it seems. He can be an idiot, not to mention grumpy and demanding and all his other many faults, and she persists in liking him anyway.

It goes against the grain, but he's learning to deal with being more loved than is in any way reasonable by yet another person who should really know better. Ducky has been at it the longest, then Abby, then his team - with Kate as a special case, actually unreasonable enough to be  _in love_  with him, hard as it is to believe. Maybe it shouldn't surprise him to discover his new colleagues, new friends, are just as unreasonable.

She giggles, and when he looks up, she looks decidedly mischievous.

"What?"

She shakes her head, then she's getting up and grabbing his hand to pull him after her. "It's almost lunchtime, and we are going to go and sit in the sun and you are going to eat a healthy meal for once. And I'm going to call Cal and Kate and have them meet us, and you are going to pay very close attention to how Kate looks at you, and be reminded you're loved whether you like it or not."

He can't help laughing as she gathers her things and beckons him to follow her. For someone so gentle, Gillian sure knows how to get her own way. It probably helps it's a fairly enticing offer, but he's not certain he could refuse her anyway.

"Bossy," he says mildly, with a grin of his own.

Gill just laughs and tugs on his hand.

_~ fin ~_


End file.
